CIVITES (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain) investigates the implementation of the citizenship regime and naturalization strategies for Ecuadorians, Brazilians, Romanians, Moroccans and Filipinos in Italy and Spain.
Both countries share a history of late immigration and have experienced a significant increase in naturalization rates in the last 10 years. However, their citizenship regimes are very different, making them particularly attractive case studies for CIVITES comparative purposes.
The fundamental hypothesis of CIVITES is that the processes of acquisition of citizenship are defined by the interaction of legal praxis, individual strategies and the sense of belonging based on the intersection of gender, religious, cultural and family factors.
According to such an hypothesis, the acquisition of citizenship is a scenario where the link between legal-political structures and concepts, on the one hand, and strategic decisions and a sense of belonging, on the other, is articulated. To achieve the specific objectives of the project, an analysis of the discourse of institutional actors and applicants will be carried out.
The ultimate objective of CIVITES is to generate empirical based-knowledge about the different conceptions underling the processes of citizenship acquisition between strategic decisions and sense of belonging.
